Hi guys and I have a new ethical brand featured today that you guys might have heard of: Bridge and Burn. They're a Portland, OR, company that's been on my radar since I first visited Portland 4 years ago and I've already purchased a couple items from them before (I just haven't reviewed them before). If you're not familiar with them, they manufacture their clothes either in San Francisco or in one Canadian-owned factory in China where they can make small batches of their designs. They've got all the ethical standards covered and you can read more about it here.
So I had some credit in my pocket from a returned jacket in January so I decided to treat myself after a no buy July (unfortunately it was earlier in the month before their massive sale going on right now *faceplam*). The first thing I got was this Kharmen Dress in light blue stripes because I'm such a sucker for a blue striped dress.
First a note on sizing: I ordered this in a small and I would say it's a tad oversized. I find that B&B tends to run a tad large but not enough for me to bother to size down. Plus I wanted a loose easy dress and don't mind the extra space (also if I eat a lot, you wouldn't be able to tell in this dress). It wasn't so large that the arm holes were showing my bra so that's good.
So what did I think of the dress? I love it! It's such a good easy summer dress that you can throw on and not have to think about it the rest of the day. I like the length since it's not a mini and the hem is also slightly longer in the back than in the front. So I can comfortably bend down without flashing anyone my underwear. Oh and it has pockets. That's good 'ole no-nonsense Pacific Northwest design for you lol. The only thing I'm a little meh about is the racerback design since I don't have a racerback style bra and I'm too lazy to try to convert my regular bras into one. I'm not a huge fan of having my bra straps show in the back but I can live with it.
{Wearing the Kharmen dress with my fave Everlane V Sling back (reviewed here)}
But what I like the most though, and this is what has drawn me to B&B from the beginning is the fabric they use. I love that they use Japanese fabrics because (and I'm probably biased here because of my Japanese heritage) I think Japan makes some of the best high quality fabrics. I mean Elizabeth Suzann and Only Child both source their linens from Japan. But in general a lot of good fabric is made in Japan (I used to buy a lot of clothes from Japan and a lot of the made in Japan stuff has lasted me decades!). This particular dress fabric is a blend of cotton and linen and it feels like a light chambray denim. It doesn't wrinkle even after a whole days worth of wear and it feels light but sturdy. Also even though the dress is light colored, it is fully opaque and black undies won't show. One of my other B&B items is a jacket from their traditional Kiriko Japanese textile collection and I love its uniqueness.
Anyway you can find this Kharmen dress here for $84 (from $118). I know summer is pretty much over for a lot of you so please don't go buying this dress if you aren't going to be wearing it until next year (no use keeping it in your closet no matter how good the price). But if you live in Hawaii, Florida, or plan to be visiting a lot of warm places in the next couple of months, I can't think of a better ethically-made summer dress!
P.S. Their returns are a bit of a pain (you have to send it back yourself and you can only get store credit in the form of an email that you have to remember to use), so I would advise purchasing only if you're pretty sure you're going to keep it.